In response to President Biden’s call for a slate of plans to raise taxes on billionaires and corporations in tonight’s State of the Union address, Nabil Ahmed, Oxfam America’s Director of Economic and Racial Justice, said:
“This State of the Union was a forceful rejection of trickle-down economics. Raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy and corporations is a crucial step toward tackling billionaire excess and reversing today’s pernicious inequality. It was heartening to hear President Biden so forcefully call for policies that so many organizers and workers have long fought for, and that can pull the country out of a second Gilded Age.
“Economic inequality has exploded in recent decades in the US, making life much harder for ordinary Americans and undermining democracy, while the wealth of an elite few has skyrocketed. This administration deserves credit for prioritizing policies that actually help poor and middle-class people, from catching ultrarich tax cheats to fighting monopolies and supporting organized labor. But far more still needs to be done by the administration and Congress to curb corrosive concentrations of extreme wealth and corporate power, and guarantee people’s rights to a dignified life.
“This administration has already made progress on making the wealthy and huge corporations pay their fair share—but make no mistake, our tax code remains rigged in their favor. Fair taxation of the astronomically wealthy—which President Biden’s tax agenda would help achieve—would not just raise resources for important programs that support communities, but would also combat inequality and shore up democracy.”